


Empty Rooms and Crowded Aisles

by PanBoleyn



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: M/M, Season 3 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 14:09:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanBoleyn/pseuds/PanBoleyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harvey wants him gone? Well, Mike may not be fine with that, but since he can't fix things, he'll oblige. Just - on his terms, not by meekly going where Harvey dropped him.</p><p>Or, Mike transfers to a different branch, post-merger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty Rooms and Crowded Aisles

**Author's Note:**

> Work and chapter titles, not to mention inspiration, from Josh Groban's 'Higher Window'
> 
> Some text taken from the original conception of this 'verse, a couple Tumblr ficlets where Mike went to London, not Toronto.

It’s not as though Mike can’t guess why Nigel Nesbitt is offering him a transfer. He’s had enough experience of Louis using him to piss Harvey off that he knows what this is. It’s Nigel trying to get at Louis, and really, how is it all these high and mighty partner-level lawyers are so damn _childish_? Mike saw kids behaving better when he was in first grade. All of these stupid power games are like that, childish and petty, even the last one. Jessica and Harvey, and Mike still doesn’t understand why Harvey hated the merger so much, why Jessica wanted it so damn much. All he understands is the results of it, because that’s why he’s here, isn’t it?

****

If Harvey would give him five minutes - hell, one minute - to explain, Mike would be able to ask him what the hell he was supposed to do. If he’d told Harvey what was going on and Jessica got even an inkling that he had, she would have turned him in and both he and Harvey would have been fucked. Mike would have gone to jail, and at best Harvey would take a hit at being ‘fooled’ by a con artist. At worst, he’d be in the cell next to Mike’s. So while Mike knows what he did was a betrayal of Harvey, he really, really doesn’t know what he should have done. Not when Jessica covered all bases in her threat. Not when Harvey was acting erratic, crossing all the lines he’d set for himself and never crossed before that Mike had seen. Not over Tanner, not over Hardman.

****

Besides, he’d been told very clearly that Harvey was done cleaning up his messes. So Mike had cleaned up this one the only way he had. He hates it, he regrets doing it, he’s sorry it came to this, but he isn’t sorry for his intentions, not when his aim was to make sure they all survived this mess.

****

But he hasn’t been given the chance to say that. Really, Mike’s not surprised by that, but thinking about Harvey walking past the office Mike had so briefly occupied, going right by like Mike didn’t exist, the looks he’s given Mike every time they come face to face, what he’d said the last time they spoke and the time before, in the lobby…

****

_“I gave you to Louis because you and me? We’re **done**.”_

****

Maybe it would be easier if he’d told Rachel what she wanted to know, when she confronted him in the file room. But something - he still didn’t know what - had kept him silent, and instead he’d fobbed her off once again.

****

_“I’m sorry, Rachel, I am so sorry. But I can’t tell you. It’s not just my secret to tell.”_

_**** _

_“Well then, I hope you and this other person are very happy together.”_

****

They haven’t spoken since. Happy together? Ha. If only Rachel knew, both who she’d been referring to and the fact that her implication is… Is...

****

Not something he can contemplate right now. It’s probably for the best, he tells himself, that he didn’t realize this until Harvey fired him; the other man already hates him, errant affections can’t do any damage that isn’t already done.

****

Mike knows he did this to himself, but he hadn’t known what else to do. And now, just like he’d told Rachel, he’s lost everything and everyone.

****

Louis is offering him a fresh start, but it’s a risk. Working so closely with him might reveal Mike’s fraud if he says the wrong thing. And… There’s something in Mike that rebels at being given away like he was once bet away, like an object. Or maybe a dog. The puppy analogy, after all. People give puppies away, especially after the holidays, Mike’s read about it, and seen the commercials. Maybe even if he hadn’t fucked up this would have happened eventually.

****

Why should he stay where Harvey sent him? If they’re done, Mike isn’t obligated to do what Harvey wants anymore. Besides, being a fake lawyer might be easier in an office where everyone didn’t go to the very school he’s pretending to have attended.

****

But even as he’s coming up with logical reasons why transferring to Toronto is a good idea, Mike knows he doesn’t really give a damn about the sensible stuff. That isn’t what’s driving him. That isn’t why he looks Nigel dead in the eye and accepts his offer.

****

_“You think I need you? I’ve been doing this since long before I met you, and I’ll be doing it long after I’ve forgotten all about you.”_

****

Mike owes Harvey everything, and yet somehow it still feels like too much to just allow himself to be disposed of however Harvey likes. Mike still has his pride - if nothing else - and he won’t do it. If Harvey wants him away so bad, fine. Mike will oblige.

****

On his terms.

****

\---

****

Harvey doesn’t actually realize Mike’s gone for weeks. He doesn’t see him with Louis, or anywhere else, but he just assumes he was right about the kid turning Louis down, and that now he’s making himself scarce in hopes that time will soften Harvey’s anger.

****

The funny thing is, the plan Harvey imagined Mike to have works. As the days pass, Harvey wants to stay angry; he has a right to be after Mike’s betrayal. And in any case, the anger helps him ignore the fact that what gets to him the most isn’t that Mike did what Jessica wanted so much as the fact that he didn’t trust Harvey enough to come to him, to tell him about the threat. That hurts, though Harvey does his best to deny it.

****

Trouble is, Mike’s absence hurts too. Oh, not right away. But he’s in the middle of a meeting with one of his most boring clients - Ava’s case takes up the vast majority of his time but not every second - and he looks over to where Mike sat the last time, as bored as he was till their eyes met, at which point he’d grinned and pulled a face behind the client’s back. But there isn’t anyone there.

****

And it keeps happening. Every time one of the Harvard drones he borrows works too slowly compared to the pace Harvey’s accustomed to Mike having, every time he gets out of the town car and automatically glances toward the bike rack. He misses the movie quote-offs, the banter, and damn it, he misses Mike. He doesn’t want to but he does. He remembers Ava saying that she was going to miss Nick, in spite of what he’d done, and Donna suggesting that if the mess they were all in was on Jessica, that maybe they should forgive Mike.

****

Maybe they should. But when Harvey goes through the bullpen, it takes him a minute to find Mike’s desk, because someone else is sitting there. Someone who says something to the person across from him in a British accent. Harvey knows Mike gave up that office Jessica gave him as some kind of reward, so maybe he’s been moved to another desk because his was filled? Except none of the desks are empty, and Mike’s not at any of them.

****

Going to see Louis is never on his list of things he enjoys doing, but he handed Mike off to him, so if anyone will know where the hell Mike is, it’ll be Louis. “What did you do with Mike after he turned you down?” he asks without preamble, striding into Louis’ office.

****

Louis glances up from his papers. “Why?”

****

“Because I need to talk to him.” There’s something in Louis’ expression that Harvey doesn’t like; it reminds him of the smugness from when he’d taken Ray’s case and Louis had found the newspaper article on that little mess. Or from the brief time when Hardman had won out and had the firm again, with Louis backing him all the way. Harvey’s fingers want to curl into fists, but he won’t give Louis the satisfaction of a reaction. “Where is he?”

****

“If I were you, I’d call him, because otherwise you’re going to have to get on a plane.”

****

“I’m sorry, what?”

****

Louis sets aside his paperwork. “You were right, he turned me down. To take an offer from Nesbitt that sent him to Toronto. He told me he wanted a fresh start, and something about no strong connections at the moment making this a perfect time to try somewhere new. So go ahead and be smug that even after you didn’t want him, I wasn’t good enough.”

****

Being smug is the last thing from Harvey’s mind. He doesn’t bother to answer, just walks out of Louis’ office and back to his own. Donna takes one look at the expression on his face and follows him inside, closing the door. “Harvey, what happened? Did you track Mike down?”

****

“So you didn’t know he transferred to Canada either?”

****

Donna looks as stunned as Harvey feels. “He did what? I knew about Nigel transferring people around, but why would Mike go? OK, so we were shutting him out but if nothing else he and Rachel - wait, no, she told me she stopped talking to him, but he’s got…” Donna trails off, like she actually can’t think of a reason Mike would stay after all. Neither can Harvey. “So, that’s it?”

****

“I guess it has to be, for now,” Harvey says.

****

Donna leaves, and Harvey turns in his chair, looking out at the city. This isn’t - he didn’t think - It’s not that he always knew, on some level, that he’d forgive Mike eventually. He didn’t, in spite of missing him. It’s just that, he thought the ball was entirely in his court. He’d choose whether he wanted to shun Mike forever or accept him back, and Mike would just… be there, waiting for his decision.

 

He didn’t expect Mike to take him at his word, and then take steps to actually leave. He didn’t expect it, and he’s not exactly sure how to react to it. Hell, he’s not even sure he has a right to now. Apparently, Mike isn’t his anymore, not because he cut him off, but because Mike chose to walk away.

 

Yeah. He doesn’t have a fucking clue what to think about this.


End file.
